30.3.08

when morven from food art and random thoughts announced that this month's daring baker's challenge was going to be classic party layer cake from dorie greenspan, i was super excited. my previous experience with layer cakes has been (a) betty crocker box mix or (b) just buy a cake, have you seen how many gorgeous bakeries are here in the city? why would i ever bake my own??

but truth be told, the reason why i ever had an inkling of interest in baking was because back when i was bored in undergrad, i had the grand idea that deep down inside i was born to be a cake baker. it wasn't even the cake ... but all those flowers, squigglies, vines, and basket weaves!! i was so impressed with it all and so desperately wanted to try perfect it myself.

well, that lasted about 5 days.

but now, older and wiser, i feel free to indulge my inner cake obsession. this was my first ever layer cake. my first ever buttercream. this is what being a daring baker was all about, and i was totally excited to get to it!!

i made the cakes last week and planned on finishing this weekend (yes, i procastinate, that's the beauty of my life). since this was my first i decided to go by the book and bake exactly as described in dorie's recipe. well, since this was my first cake i have nothing to base my experience on, but they didn't seem to rise too well. i mean, it was like maybe an inch high? which was just about where the batter was to begin with. sigh. was i doomed to just a two layer cake?

when mr. mimi saw it, being the professional naysayer, he immediately pronounced it non-cuttable into additional layers!

well, i'll show him! nobody puts baby in the corner!

so here it is, with the original raspberry jam and lemon buttercream recipe. i used up all the buttercream, so whipped up some quick royal icing for the rest of the decorations, which some how came out all peeps looking, even though i didn't mean the yellow and pink to be so flourescent. but i look forward to many more piping adventures in my near future! :)

check out all the daring bakers for more fantastically beautifully delish party cakes!

What a perfect party cake! You did such an excellent job of everything! The icing colours you chose reminded me of the party cakes my Mom used to buy (she is not a baker) on my birthday when I was a little girl. Thanks for the memory!

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looks just like milo!

a word about the recipes

if you don't see a name, that means it was created by mr. mimi or myself. if you see an "adapted from" that means the recipe is here tweaked a bit (ingredients or methods) from the original source. if you see a "from" that means the recipe is here as written in whatever source i cite.